Warm and Fuzzy Frozen Shorts
by ungenannt
Summary: A collection of small tales, little scenes inspired by fans of Frozen. Some will be part of a specific ship, and are labeled as such.
1. Elsa in the Rain

The soft gusts pushed her braid about but Elsa simply ignored it, closing her eyes and enjoying the breeze. The few people she had seen today were all far too busy, too involved in their works to bother with the queen wandering the halls. Even Anna had something to do today, it seemed. But not Elsa.

The queen opened her eyes and looked up. The sky was slate, with strata of darker and lighter grey slipping past overhead. It was the first day it wasn't sunny since she'd come back and the winter had ended. She supposed it wasn't really that surprising, everyone occupying themselves indoors. Elsa could practically smell the rain.

It took her back to her years in her room. Whenever it rained she would open the window and the scent of the world would waft in. She would read by the window then, or try and freeze the droplets as they flew by. More than once she'd be scolded for a wet sill and carpet because of it.

As she thought about those days, so long away and so close, she felt the first kiss of the storm, a little drop landing on her nose. And then it started. Rain poured from the sky and Elsa was there to enjoy it all. People said that the rain made them said, or melancholy, but this rain didn't feel sad as it pattered against her skin and clothes, each little drop a kiss or a hand at her shoulder or head or cheek.

She'd never really felt the rain before, not like this.

She laughed and laughed and she couldn't understand why. Like the sky above her something inside opened and she couldn't help the giddy feeling that welled up in her. It was a kind of magic anyone could feel, playing in the rain. She spun as she laughed and if she looked up she might have seen the windows around the gardens slowly filling with faces she'd barely seen in years. Smiling faces.


	2. The Family Wreath

The sisters stood silently as the workmen gingerly placed the framed hanging wall case down onto the table. The men were professionals; Kristoff has suggested them to Anna when he had heard of the whole affair. Traditionally all of this was supposed to be done by the family but Elsa still didn't trust herself working with such delicate things, and Anna… Anna was enthusiastic but maybe not so dexterous or artistic enough for this. The backing of the case was unlatched, and the glass and frame pulled away. It was hard to describe what Elsa felt, but it was like a little bubble had risen up out of her tummy and had gotten stuck in her throat. She wondered if Anna felt the same. Sitting before the royal family of Arendelle was the royal family of Arendelle. It was a wreath, touching fresh air for the first time in years, stretching to three feet wide and as many tall, shaped like a horse shoe.

It was covered in flowers and vines in various colors and shades; red, white, brown, and black dominated the wreath, but every now and then a spark of an almost silvery yellow. An occasional pearl or gem glinting in the light and every now and then a small brooch sat, with a scene of trees, or mountains painted onto its face. Next to each one, carefully written was a number, and in the center of the shoe, a paper with names next to each number. There were hundreds of them and each one, Elsa knew, was an antecedent. A father, a mother, an uncle a cousin. This was, more than anything, history.

'Your highness?'

Anna looked at her sister as the queen ignored the worker standing next to her and pressed her hand to Elsa's shoulder, 'Elsa?'

'Yes? I'm sorry. I was just- yes?'

'Queen Elsa, we're ready,' the man said again.

'Yes, yes. Right. You may begin.'Elsa nodded to Kai, one of the only servants that had stayed with the family since the sisters parents had closed off the castle. He held a small box with him and, holding it as though it were a holy reliquary, brought it to the table, and the workers there.

Elsa didn't know when Anna had first seen the wreath, but here looking at the heirloom the queen could recall the first time she had seen it very clearly. She must have been thirteen at the time and one of those few days back then when she felt courageous enough to be out of her room and near her family. Her father had decided on something special for her, and had taken her to one of the oldest rooms in the castle. It was one of the first ones built, and it used to be a dining hall.

Elsa hadn't felt the bubble in her throat then, but the tightness she felt now increased as Kai opened up the chest her held and reached in.

* * *

'It's hair' Agdar said.

'What?' his daughter asked, stepping back.

'It's all hair, each little flower and vine. Everything.'

'Eww!'

The king fought the urge to reach for his eldest daughter as she backed away more. The fact that she was out here with him at all was nearly a miracle. Instead he gave out his best chuckle and turned around to face the wreath.

'Don't be like that, Elsa. This is your family. This is where you came from. Come here. Do you see that small flower near the very tip there? On the right?'

'The black one with the green in the center?'

'Yes. That is your great grandfather, Richart. And on the other side, in the same place, that is my Nana, sorry. Your great grandmother, Siro. She also has an emerald, see?'

Elsa cautiously stepped forward, looking at the artistry of the wreath. As she got closer she could see that it was hair. Each petal and leaf, frond and flower each and everyone one was a lock or loop or a mat of hair. The thought of it caused her skin to creep, but when she backed away, they all just looked like…flowers.

'I brought you here because I wanted you to see something,' the king said, 'It's important for you to know who and where you came from. Look at the colors, Elsa. What do you see?'

She looked over the hair wreath for a while, 'There's a lot of black and brown,' she said finally.

'Yes?'

'A-and some red.'

'Anything else?'

Elsa looked from her father to the case on the wall, trying to see what she was missing. She could feel a small tremor in her, shamed at not having an answer. When she looked back at her father, he was looking away, and tugging at his own hair. Elsa's eyes went wide.

'Th-there's almost none of mine!'

The king smiled at her, 'That's right. In all the years our family has been making this wreath, there's barely a handful of that were blond, like you.' Agdar knelt down, looking his daughter in the eyes, 'Some people might think that, in a family where dark hair is so prevalent that blond hair might be a bit, well, magical,' The princess let out a small gasp, and the king couldn't help but smile when her little hands went over her mouth, "I can't say if they could do what you can, Elsa, but looking at them now, and looking at you, I'd like to think they could. There are stories of your great aunt Alexia. She's just there, the silvery clover half way down with the blue pearl in the center. They said that in a terrible winter she risked her own life to bring firewood and food to the sick and the starving. And your great cousin Noelle, She's at the bottom there, do you see? After she passed many who knew her said she should be beatified since so many mothers whose children seemed to have been stillborn came to life in her hands.'

Elsa's eyes were like saucers, looking at the flowers, all that was left of her distant family.

'You can find stories for each and every one of them Elsa, and they all have one thing in common. They always did their best to help those around them, and no matter what it was they did, people loved them,' Agdar took his daughter's hand, and for once she didn't pull it away from him, 'I know that, when you are ready, the people of the kingdom will feel the same way about you.'

He let her hand go and stood back up, it was time to leave.

As he escorted his young daughter from the old chamber, Elsa looked back and asked, 'Is my hair in their? Or Anna's?'

'No, Elsa. A new flower is only added after the person dies. It would be nice to see you there with the rest of our family, but I hope it is not for a long, long time.'

* * *

When Elsa came down from the memory, the artisans were finished, and two of them calmly walked to the royal sisters. One of them handed her a flower with long light brown petals stretched out, with a long golden stamen sticking out amongst them like a sword. Elsa knew the flower, a gladiolus. It was a good match for her father. The other artists handed Anna her own flower; a pearl, painted yellow, sitting amongst a number of thin locks of black hair shaped like petals. It was a rare flower that Elsa had only ever seen in a book, an aster. The queen looked at her sister, she was smiling, Anna was always smiling.

'Are you ready?'Anna asked. Elsa nodded, and they walked to the wreath. Lightly Elsa placed her father's flower at the end of the horse shoe, finding a bit of a twig with nothing to hold, and wound the 'stem' of the flower around it. Anna did the same when she was done, placing their mother's flower right next to their father's.

'Together again.'

Elsa couldn't help but smile, 'Yes. One day, we'll all be together again.'

Anna bumped into her sister's shoulder, 'But I'd like it if it wasn't for a long, long time.'


	3. The Aurora (Kristelsa)

'Mommy, daddy, wake up! Wake up! Wake u-aah!'  
'Ouf!' Kristoff's eyes opened and he coughed as his daughter landed on him, 'Hanna, what are you doing?'

The little girl looked up at him, all big shining blue eyes, 'Come on daddy, you have to come look at it! Come on!'she tugged at his arm as she got off of him and then the bed.

'Alright alright.' he said with a yawn.  
'And mommy!'

With a smile Kristoff reached over and shook his wife's shoulder 'And mommy' he said, getting a groan from the queen.  
'Tell your daughter to go back to bed,' she said sleepily as she got up.  
'I'm not the one who brought her home.'  
Elsa pushed the man away, playfully.

Outside their room, Johanna bounced around in her nightshirt, two excited to stand still, chanting at them to hurry and come out side.

'What's so important, Hanna?' Elsa asked as her daughter took her hand.  
'Come on outside! It's so pretty!' Elsa smiled at the girl's enthusiasm, it was infectious.  
Together the mother and father were pulled through the halls by their child, down stairs and finally out into the open air of the garden.

Instead of the darkness they were expecting, the sky was filled with light

'Isn't it pretty?' Johanna said as she stood there watching the colors, squeezing her parents hands. The lights in the sky danced and the family sad down on the small steps, watching as ribbons of green gave way to purple flashes and blue streaks shot between them.  
'It must be one in the morning…' Kristoff said, eventually pulling his eyes away from the sky, 'Why were you even awake?'  
'I woke her up,' Elsa, Kristoff and Johanna all turned around, and back inside was Anna, already dressed in a warm robe against the cool night air. She smiled and sat herself down next to her sister.

'You did?'  
'Well yeah,' she said, 'I remember when we were little how mom woke us all up and we watched the Lights together and well…' she looked at her niece, 'I thought it would be nice, the whole family together.'

A soft snow began to fall on the three as Elsa pulled her younger sister into a hug, and was quickly joined by her daughter. Kristoff could only smile and chuckle at them.

Long into the night the four watch fire pour across the sky, at times Johanna would be sure she could see things there, people, and animals, and soon, her father and Anna would do their best to make up stories for her; a brave warrior fighting a dragon to save a princess, or a dashing pirate trying to make up for his past. As they did, Elsa couldn't help but remember that time, years and years ago when she'd sat there with her own mother and father, watching the same lights, and she was sure, hearing the same stories.

Hours later as the sun was rising and the Lights fading, the little girl was coddled into her mother's arms. Tired eyes looked down at her, her fathers, mothers, and aunt's.

'Thank you, Anna' Elsa said, looking back to her sister, 'Thank you.'


	4. By the Creek

The creek made a lazy horse shoe turn as is meandered through the woods; it's sloshing, bubbling babbling water turning into an orchestra against the rocks of its bed. As it made its turn the creek widened and deepened and the churning water slowly turned almost into a pond, plants and lilies floated on its surface. Years of animals traveling to the bank had trampled or gnawed down the plants until only a few tenacious blades of grass and sprigs of shrubbery remained amongst the rocks and gravel. Animals seldom came here now, and people even less so. A perfect place for those that wanted to be hidden. A perfect place for trolls.

Or at least those taken in by trolls.

Elsa had seated herself on one of the larger rocks, after having made sure it wasn't one of her hosts here in the Valley of Stone. Between her hands a snowflake, almost the size of a small rock floated softly in the air, slowly, agonizingly slowly, growing in size. Pabbie, the eldest of the little rocky creatures here, had been trying to teach her how to use her powers. But it was hard. Things that had been so easy for the little princess before were so difficult now. It had all become difficult after her mother and father had left her there almost two weeks ago.

She couldn't help it; the image of her family riding off into the early morning, leaving her in the valley simply came into her head and with it an empty sinking feeling in her stomach. A feeling that she'd never see them again. Snowflake twitched in the air and grew. It's pristine pattern gown and replaced with a gnashing clawed form. Spines shot out and pricked at Elsa's hands. With a gasp she pulled her hands away and the misshapen hunk of ice fell and broke against the rocks at her feet.

Stupid stupid!

It happened again! Every time she was getting close she'd remember and it wouldn't work!

She stomped on the ice, crunching it beneath her shoe, the splinters of ice quickly melting in the late fall sun. Her vision blurred as she did it, the empty feeling refusing to leave. With a sniffle she rubbed her eyes into the arm of her shirt. Doing her best to hold back more tears she turned from the ruination of her practice and instead headed for the widest part of the meander. The water grasses swayed gently in the lazy current as the creek emptied into the larger stretch, with little bubbles moving the lilies and their pads every now and then. It almost looked like there was something moving just beneath the water.

With a soft gasp to herself, Elsa remembered the stories her older sister, Anna, would read to her, back before she could do it herself. The story of the Nøkkerose, the lilies, and why little children shouldn't stray near them. A female Grim would hide under their pads, waiting for unwary children to stray to close, then pull them down and never let go, because girl grims were jealous of a child's beauty.

But maybe it was a boy grim? He could teach her how to play the fiddle! Elsa and her sister would play pretend at their instruments then, bounding around the library. One was a grim and the other the learning fiddler.

Elsa sat down again cheeks aglow at the memory. She rubbed her hands and before she knew it, the snowflake was back again. This time as looked from it to the lilies to her hands the flake grew more and more, until it was almost the size of her hand. She wasn't sure, but Elsa thought she could see flowers etched on the little crystals of ice.

'Wow you really can make ice!'

Elsa's yelp launched her from her seat and she spun around arms close hands clenched. Once again her ice fell to the ground and shattered. Standing as if he'd come out of nowhere was a boy with blond hair and dark clothes, an animal was with him, little nubby antlers and a shaggy coat. A reindeer.

'Wh-at?!' Elsa asked.  
'Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't- I'm sorry. I just wanted to see if you could do it'  
He took a step closer. She took a step back  
'Wh-who are you?'Elsa stammered, 'No, it doesn't- No. Go away!'  
'I didn't mean to scare you,' another step 'I just-'  
'Go away.'  
'But-'  
'Go away!'  
The boy stopped. He's eyebrows pushed together over his forehead, ' I didn't- okay...' he made a slow turn and tugged at the shaggy hair of his pet, 'C'mon Sven.'

Elsa held her arms close as the boy started to walk away, his reindeer, baying as he was tugged along, snorting and looking back at her. And then be broke free.

'Sven!'

This time Elsa shrieked and shrank. She was going to be eaten! She shut her eyes, covered her head and tried to wind herself into as small a ball as she could. Her head thundered words out into the universe. Go away! Stay away! Don't be afraid of me! Don't hurt me!

And nothing happened.

It took her a few moments to realize she wasn't being gobbled up by the little beast, and as her senses came back to her and the pounding fear in her head receded, she could hear… slurps?

'Wow!' it was the boy.

Elsa opened her eyes.

Surrounding the once-a-princess was a fan of ice spikes, jutting out like a barricade against the world. It didn't seem to work very well. The reindeer was licking at the end of one of them. Already its pointed end had been rounded off and more was melting with every slavering slurp.

'Sorry! I'm sorry!' the boy came closer now, seemingly as undisturbed by the ice as his pet. He gave the reindeer a tug at his neck and pulled him back, scratching him, 'Sven likes to meet new people; he didn't mean to scare you. Isn't that right Sven?'

The reindeer nodded like it understood perfectly. It stared back at Elsa, its tongue lolling out of its mouth. Elsa was speechless. The boy continued.

'It really is neat, how you can do that. The ice I mean. I love ice! It's so cool!' the boy left the reindeer to its popsicle and started to walk around the palisade of ice, 'Did you know that water gets bigger when it freezes? Where does the extra ice come from? Can you make anything freeze?' he reached out and broke off a hunk of a spike. It looked like a little frozen carrot in his hand, 'How'd you learn to do all this?'

' I… I… I don't know, it just…' Elsa looked from the boy to the reindeer, then down at her own feet. She felt all warm from the attention, like when Anna would play with her. Anna. 'It just happens. It's why I'm here.'

Elsa looked up again at the boy; he had the ice spike in his mouth.

'Wah yoor heeh?'

Elsa couldn't stop the giggle from escaping as the boy pulled the ice from his mouth.

'Why you're here?'

'Yes my-' she stopped herself. Her father did say never to tell anyone. But the boy had already seen her, he hadn't run away when she did her magic. What harm could there be? 'My parents. They left me here. With the trolls. So I could-'

'The trolls!? I live with them too!' The boy's eyes went wide, 'Now I know where I saw you! You were the girl from the other night! Bulda wouldn't let me watch!'

He lives with the trolls too? 'Bulda? Is she your… mother?'

'Huh? No. Well. Yeah I guess. She takes care of me,' still on the other side of the ice spikes, the boy extended his hand, 'My name's Kristoff! This is Sven.' Kristoff nodded his head towards the reindeer. It had made a sizable dent in the circle of ice. Elsa reached over the ice and took the boy's hand.  
'I'm Elsa.'  
'Say "Hello" to Elsa, Sven,' Kristoff said, releasing Elsa's hand.  
The reindeer stopped his licking for a moment and looked at Elsa, his tongue still hanging out of his mouth, 'Hello Elsa!' he said.  
Elsa gasped and laughed at the voice and looked at Kristoff. The boy was grinning, 'Reindeers can't talk!'  
'Sven can.'  
'No he can't, that was you!'  
'Was not!'  
'Was too!'  
'I can too talk!' this time Elsa watched the boy as he made the voice. It was like he was trying to talk out of the back of his mouth.  
'See it is you!' Elsa's could feel her cheeks pinch now as she laughed and smiled.  
'Prove it!' the boy jumped away from the ice and Sven soon followed. Elsa clambered her way past the spikes, and soon a grand chase was on.

If there were rules no one watching would have been able to tell. The three chased each other, at one time Elsa chased the boy and his pet, and other times they chased her. At one point an alliance was made between Sven and Elsa, and they had Kristoff cornered against a rock. But betrayal was Sven's reward for when he closed in on his old friend; both he and Kristoff were pelted with snow. Her devious plan shown for what it was, the chase was on again with Elsa running and laughing as the boys sought to capture her.

They had played half the day away before they realized it; the sun was already making its journey back towards the horizon. Elsa was petting Sven as he lay down next to her, with Kristoff on the reindeer's other side. Elsa was telling Kristoff more about how she'd come to be with the trolls.

She had always been able to make ice, she told him. It was just something she did. Her sister, Anna, loved it and they would play all the time. But one time Elsa had hit Anna with her magic while they played and Anna wouldn't wake up. Her parents took them both to the trolls. They fixed Anna, but her parents were still very concerned. They'd left Elsa there, so she could learn they'd said. Learn to use her powers. Since then she was staying with Pabbie and she'd come out to the creek to try and practice every day. She hadn't really been allowed to meet many of the other trolls in that time. But she hadn't told him who her parents really were.

'Looks like you're really good at it,' Kristoff said, scratching at Sven's ears. He glanced over at the ring of ice spikes still sitting and slowly melting.  
'I'm not. Sometimes I can do what I want but, when things… sometimes it just comes out.'  
'Like a burp?'  
'Eww!'  
'Everyone burps! I bet you burp!'  
'I do not, I'm a prin-'  
'Kristoff!' It was a bellow if ever there was one. A shout full of boulders and gravel, 'I thought I told you to take Cliff to the caves! Where are you boy?' it promised an avalanche of chores.

'Oh no Sven! We totally forgot!' Kristoff bolted straight up out of his seat, and Sven with him.  
'Who's that? Bulda?'  
'Yeah, we gotta go,' Kristoff started to walk away but stopped and turned, 'It was, uh. Nice to meet you, Elsa. Come on Sven!'  
'It-' Elsa's voice turned into a yelp and giggles as Sven licked her face then ran after Kristoff. The boy was waving as he ran.

Elsa waved back.

'It was nice to meet you too.'


	5. Knights in Different Armor (Kristelsa)

The wind rustled the leaves in the trees, and Kristoff couldn't help but let the sound draw his eyes skyward. High above, through partings of thin clouds he could see the Milky Way begin to show itself in the darkening sky. He pushed the brush and branches aside, this part of the forest was surprisingly dense this close to the town and the river, and it was often slow going, but he pushed on through the growth, following the starry sky, almost like a trail of frost he'd found years ago.

Almost tripping over an upturned root, he staggered into a clearing. In the half light of the early evening he could just make out a girl a few years younger than him sitting at the edge of the rise, knees to her chest, just before it took a sharp dive into the river below. Her soft crying had an odd, almost pleasant sound when mixed with the quiet lapping and churning of the water below. All around her the ground was icy white, frost coating every blade of grass and scrap of dirt.

Even with all the noise he must have made wading through the woods she hadn't yet noticed him. Kristoff scratched at his cheek. He'd wished Sven had come with him; he always seemed to know just the right thing to say in times like these. He took a few steps forward.

'Hey, Elsa,' She jerked and for a moment Kristoff thought she was going to fall, instead she turned to look at him. Starlight twinkled off the tears staining her cheeks. She turned back around quick as could be.  
'Oh… H-hello Kristoff…'

When she didn't move to leave the boy started to walk to the edge, the frosted grass crunching under his feet. He sat himself next to her, feet dangling over the edge, and ignoring the cold in the ground as best he could. They sat there together for a while, Elsa staring at the water and Kristoff into the sky. She didn't seem to sob now, but every now and then she'd let out a little sniffle. Kristoff didn't know how long they were there for, but it seemed to him that the stars had twisted around in the sky above them until he finally spoke up.

'Are uh, are you alright? With what happened-'  
'I shouldn't have done any of that,' Elsa interrupted, chin on her knees, 'I-I didn't mean to anyway. Please don't tell Pabbie, Kristoff…' she looked at him again, cheeks still wet, with those big icy blue eyes of hers.

A few of the boys from town, in fact the only town near the troll valley, had been teasing Elsa over something. Kristoff had gotten there just in time to watch as his friend yelled at them, and at the same time, practically exploded, coating the ground in ice and giving her tormentors a nice little layer of frost on their skin. After they picked themselves up, the three of them ran away, crying for their mothers, and probably a blanket. It had to have been one of the funniest things Kristoff had ever seen.

'Why would I tell him?' Kristoff shrugged before a thought struck him and he gave his childhood friend a little grin, 'I thought it was pretty… cool.'  
Elsa couldn't help but giggle at the joke, and Kristoff's goofy smile, 'Thanks.'

Kristoff got up when he saw her smile. It wasn't the same kind of smile they'd shared so often. This one felt different. He suddenly felt very hot and awkward, 'I uh… I promise I'll help next time. If they come back.' He held out his hand to help her up. Elsa took it.

'You will?'  
'Yeah. Of course! Every princess should have a knight to protect her.'  
Elsa's smile broadened, 'I'd like it if you were my knight, Kristoff.'


	6. A Wedding Day (Kristelsa)

Birds were singing in the sparse woods, their song intermittently interrupted by plopping of snow from the trees. It had snowed the night before. Not much but just enough for ones feet to crunch as they walked outside, a thin blanket of white. Flowers stuck up out of the slight dusting of the night before, lording over the late frost: spring had come. Elsa liked days like today. They reminded her of things. The coronation for one. Herself for another. It was why she had wanted it to happen on a day like today. Well, no. Today was the day.

_A Wedding Day._

She sighed as she looked in the mirror. It was still so odd, wearing clothing that she hadn't made. The dress was lovely though. White, like the snow outside, slid down her neck, a thin lace covering her arms, a bodice embroidered with images of flowers and grass and sunshine. White on white, just covered by snow. The gown flared at her hips, a soft, cotton filled bustle pronouncing her curves, and the snow drift shot down her skirt which was plain when compared to the bodice. Elbow length gloves ensured that the new bride wouldn't be sullied by anything she touched as well. Elsa had felt silly when she'd first put it on. She'd felt like a princess.  
She sighed as she softly turned this way and that, looking at herself.

There was something… off. A nagging feeling that she couldn't put out of her mind, like a tiny cut on the roof of your mouth that you can't stop tonguing. What did her friends call it? Cold feet? Elsa snorted at the term. Cold feet? Her? Hah.

He'd laugh at that too.

Elsa could barely remember the first time she'd seen him, years and years ago, when she was left in the valley. She couldn't truly fault her parents. But she was five, how is a little girl supposed to understand being left with strange people, having to watch their family ride away, not knowing if they would ever see them again? Bulda had introduced them then, hadn't she? Since then he'd been her closest friend.

She and Kristoff had been a terror with their antics. They'd played pranks on the children of villages nearby, or on the younger trolls. Anything two young kinds would find funny they tried out. "Practice" was what she called it, but Pabbie would admonish them both anyway. Sometimes she'd get in trouble, more so than their usual fair. One stuck out in her mind, when she was eleven. The librarian at Lüdhaven had given her some books when she and Kristoff had visited, he was a kind man, and he always called her "his little booklouse."

The boys laughed at her, they said a girl shouldn't bother reading. They pushed her and laugh and laughed. She'd gotten so mad! but it was when they threw mud at her that she'd really lashed out. Ice shot out, the boys fell and spikes sprung up around them, and her. It had been years since Elsa had lost control like that, and the look in the eyes of her tormentors had terrified her. They were her father and mothers eyes. So she'd ran. She'd been scared, what if they told someone? What if they found her home? Would Gabba and Rhyo abandon her like her real parents had? Would Pabbie just send her away? Kristoff had found her at a creek. He'd said such nice things. She'd kissed him on the cheek.

Elsa smiled at the memory, and absentmindedly smoothed the skirt of the gown over her thigh.

They grew apart in some ways after that. They were no longer the inseparable pair of pranksters. In place of riotous jokes and pranks, chuckles and laughter filled the air between them. When once she would ride about on Sven whenever she wanted, now she wanted to be asked to ride. Frogs and rocks and bugs gave way to flowers. Elsa hadn't given much thought to it until the coronation.

Now that was an adventure worth of one of her old books. A long lost princess, magic, a scheming prince and a would be evil queen? But it was all just too much. Being part of a kingdom like Arendelle, being locked up in a stuffy room all day? That just wasn't her, but at least now she didn't fear about people finding out about her. She was free to come to the kingdom, free to come to the castle, whenever she wanted. She could see her sister, visit the life that had left her behind any time. But today Anna would see the life Elsa had been able to make for herself. Well, that she and Kristoff had made.  
It was after the whole ordeal that Kristoff had become awkward, excusing himself when before he and Sven would chat with her. In later years he'd always been busy with his Ice harvesting business but after the coronation he seemed to have thrown himself into it. It wasn't until one day when Sven simply wouldn't leave her cottage door that she found out why.  
Sven had carried her through the woods to a small clearing not that far from the valley and there was Kristoff, pacing back and forth talking to himself. That morning she'd tried to talk to him but he had said he needed to head off to the mountains soon, his business and all that. But instead he was there, talking to himself. Sven had pushed her out into the clearing, and with his back turned to her, Elsa heard everything Kristoff was saying. By the time he'd gotten to asking the empty air his question, Elsa had readily said –

'What's wrong, dear?' Elsa gasped at the intrusion. Stuck in her own corner with her memories she'd completely forgotten that Bulda was with her, 'Is it the dress? We could still change it, if you want.'  
'No! No. It's just- I was thinking,' Elsa said back, 'just remember how things were.'  
'Getting cold feet?'  
Elsa laughed, 'No, Bulda, nothing like that.'  
'Could have fooled me,' the troll woman pointed down to Elsa's feet, a fine little patina had formed around her, snowflake patterns drawn onto her floor in frost. Bulda chuckled as the girls face turned red, 'Everything will be fine! Come on, dear. The queen is waiting.'

Holding her skirts Elsa shuffled out of her cottage and waiting for her was a carriage. She'd never even heard it pull up. Plush with purples and greens and reds, rosemallng along the sides and the doors, it gave off an air everything she'd never had in her life, the doors opened and she was greeted by the Queen. Anna's own gown was understated compared to the bridal one her sister wore, and she sat with an air of dignity, but the wide smile she wore gave a hint to the vivaciousness hiding underneath.

'You look beautiful, Elsa,' Anna said as her sister climbed inside.  
'Thank you.'  
'It's your big day, are you excited?'  
'I feel more like everything. Terrified, excited. I'm not really sure which.'  
'Gerda told me that's how all brides feel,' the Queen knocked on the roof of the coach, 'Jonathan, let's hurry up! I need to give my sister away at some point!'  
'Yes, ma'am!' the coachman called back. He smiled as he cracked his whip over the steeds and the buggy jerked forwards. It was nice to hear the sound of laughter coming from his coach for once.


End file.
